Gym Membership

[myrdale]

I've been in and out of a couple of gyms for the last ten years. I started out with AnyTime Fitness. It was a really small gym, 24 hour access. It was $375 for a years membership. I carried that for a few years. I then moved to a Golds Gym. About 5 miles closer to the house and only $299 per year. Much larger gym. Eventually the got 24/6.5 access (they close Sunday mornings for church services). Lots more people there so broken equipment and house keeping is lacking. Later they switched to RealLife Fitness, the same owner though so many of the same problems.

I'd have a love affair with this place, I'd enjoy going regularly for several months on end, then take a couple months hiatus, then start back at it. I'll get perturbed about broken equipment or messy conditions then quit for a 6 months then rejoin.

My current membership with RealLife Fitness is expiring later this week, so I went out to price membership and boy was I surprised!

Now there is an AnyTime Fitness even closer to my house so I visited them today. Nice staff, good equipment, not a lot but I go at night so I would have it to myself. Then we discussed price. $22 bi-weekly!! $570 a year!!!

The staff keep trying to sale me on the price. I happened to have my old contracts with me listing the price, and when I showed them to her and asked couldn't they do any better the answer was a resounding no.

Honestly in the blink of an eye I realized that for keeping $271 in my pocket I could over look the things I disliked about RealLife Fitness.

[cypher1]

Does your employer offer any discounts for membership based on your health plan? I have a HDHP and recently realized I have an HRA that gives me $300 to use. I pay $32 per month for LA Fitness, so that's about 9 months of payments for reimbursements. With those savings I'm also tempted to get back into muay thai, but that's another 100 per month.

[Tabs]

I personally like Anytime Fitness for their price and locations. I think anything that gets you to improve your health, even if just part-time, is an investment that is at least worth considering....

If I were to be honest with myself though, sometimes, it's a tough psychological gap to get myself into the gym. I have to change into my gym gear, drive out there, hope that the stations I want to use are available, and sometimes, the place that I go to look and feel a little dirty and nasty.

That is why I did not renew the membership for this year, and is focusing on working out at home instead. I'm not an Olympic athlete or anything, so my needs are not high. It's cheaper this way too, and is much more convenient. Speaking of which, I am heading out the door now for a run.

[bjl584]

I'm a member of a locally owned gym. It has 24 hour access and is only $29 a month. I receive a $20 credit per month through my employer's health and wellness program, so it's basically about as free as it can get to be a member,

[MooseBucks]

We belong to the local YMCA. It’s $104/mo (with a corporate discount) for our entire family. We tend to use it the same as OP..on for a few months off for a few. Where we get the value is they watch our kids for 3hrs on Friday nights and also get the discounted dance and swim lessons.

[disneysteve]

We belong to the gyms owned by the hospital I work for. With the employee discount, it comes to $80/month for the 2 of us. Plus I get back $21.60/month in my paycheck. We're happy with that deal.

[kork13]

I personally like Anytime Fitness for their price and locations. I think anything that gets you to improve your health, even if just part-time, is an investment that is at least worth considering....

If I were to be honest with myself though, sometimes, it's a tough psychological gap to get myself into the gym. I have to change into my gym gear, drive out there, hope that the stations I want to use are available, and sometimes, the place that I go to look and feel a little dirty and nasty.

That is why I did not renew the membership for this year, and is focusing on working out at home instead. I'm not an Olympic athlete or anything, so my needs are not high. It's cheaper this way too, and is much more convenient. Speaking of which, I am heading out the door now for a run.

Tabs echoes my thoughts on it... Unless I had access to a program that subsidized most/all of the cost (as with bjl584, or for us, the military provides free gym access on base), I don't think I could stomach the cost of a gym membership very well, unless we truly used the place at least 3-5 times a week. As I see it, gently used home gym equipment (because let's be honest, it's almost always lightly used) can be purchased for far less than it costs for even a single year's gym membership. It doesn't take alot of fancy equipment to get a good workout in. We own 3 sizes of free weights, a basic bench, and a pull-up bar, all of which cost ~$120 total, is good for years (decades?) of fitness, and in combination with a pair of running shoes & my road bike (for something different), is totally sufficient to keep myself fit year in & year out. We do also have a stationary stand for my road bike & a basic elliptical (obviously far more expensive, ~$1200 total), but it's winter for 6+ months here in Alaska, so running/biking outside isn't very practical (or comfortable/safe for that matter) when it's icy, snowing, and -10*F outside... So we were happy to make those investments 2 years ago.

But in any case, having home gym equipment significantly reduces the inertia/motivation/willpower involved in starting a workout. Instead of changing & driving 10 minutes to the gym, I can walk downstairs or into the garage to start, or just lace up my shoes & immediately go for a run. I will acknowledge, however, that personality matters. Some people need some external motivation for working out. My wife is one of those people, and does best when she has a workout partner to go out running or lifting weights with, or when she can participate in a fitness class at the base gym. Unfortunately, I'm the exact opposite, and prefer to do my workouts in solitude, so besides suggesting to each other to go start a workout, we don't get much synergy between us... So while home gyms are definitely more cost effective, I recognize the place and utility of normal gyms... And in the end, even spending $300-$500/yr on a gym membership is still cheaper in the long run compared to ballooning medical costs caused by obesity and sedentary/inactive lifestyles.

[james.hendrickson]

We don't belong to a Gym at all, we cut the membership to save money after my wife decided to stay home and raise our daughter.

Plus, I walk about a mile to work each way. So we're able to get the exercise other ways.

[Thrif-t]

We belong to the local YMCA. It’s $104/mo (with a corporate discount) for our entire family. We tend to use it the same as OP..on for a few months off for a few. Where we get the value is they watch our kids for 3hrs on Friday nights and also get the discounted dance and swim lessons.

Moose, check to see if you can put your Y membership on "vacation". They don't advertise this.

We are Y members too and it cost $67/mo for our family. I learned from a friend that I could put my membership on vacation for the summer, couldn't go, wouldn't charge me; then start back up again in the fall.

And one time I hurt my knee so I was off all summer and then for another 3 mos for medical, no doctors note just told them, my DD friend works there, said I had to start my membership back up by Dec 1 to stay a member and not pay the free again, so that year I was off for 6 mos. I like to walk at the schools outdoor track when the weather is nice anyway.

A few years ago they built an outdoor pool for summers, now I have to keep my membership thru the summer and pay an extra 120 for the pool to be able to swim :-(. But we do all use the Y so for the 3 of us who go regularly it is a good deal.

[myrdale]

We don't belong to a Gym at all, we cut the membership to save money after my wife decided to stay home and raise our daughter.

Plus, I walk about a mile to work each way. So we're able to get the exercise other ways.

This really isn't a bad point. For me the magic number is 3-5 miles of walking is where I have historically had the best results. That sounds like a lot but is only an hour and a half in the afternoons. Push-ups, sit- ups, and chin-ups and a few squats and you've covered everything more or less for free, at home and no membership required. The hard part is doing it every day.